


Seperation

by GaylartMess



Category: Coco (2017)
Genre: Anxiety, Hurt/Comfort, Panic Attacks, post-death, siblings reuniting, slight angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-13
Updated: 2018-07-13
Packaged: 2019-06-09 20:48:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15275895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GaylartMess/pseuds/GaylartMess
Summary: After being together before and through their whole lives, It's too much to think that they'd be forced to be apart by death.A small drabble based on Jubalii's headcanon post over on tumblr on the twins waking up in separate waiting rooms





	Seperation

There was gentle murmur above where Oscar lay, rousing him from unconsciousness.  
A soft but firm pressure spread against his back and he shifting a little, shoulders pushing into the fabric of his shift and a mattress supporting him.  
Was he home? He didn’t remember falling asleep, or even anything before that. What had he been doing before he fell asleep.  
The noise continued and he picked up two different pitches. Two people talking, their words slipping past him even as he tried to focus on what they were saying, who they were.  
Something in the distance clicked and quiet followed.

It wasn’t anyone he knew, he was sure. He’d know his family anywhere.  
Was he even home then? Where was he?  
A dull pain slowly throbbed behind his eyes as he tried to open them.  
Oscar shifted, only just beginning to feel his fingers twitch against his side, brushing a soft, cool surface. His limbs felt unusually light, and as he touched the surface an odd sensation began to arise. Something felt uncanny, and he couldn’t pinpoint what the actual cause of distress was.  
He managed to force his eyes open, immediately blinking at light sharply hitting his vision and he groaned, moving his shoulders without getting up to see if he could lift an arm over his eyes.  
The voice wasn’t far and suddenly became clear as he lifted his hand in front of his eyes.

“¿Señor? Can you-?”  
Oscar paled, struck by disbelief.  
A skeletal hand hovered above his face, held up by bone wrist and arm traveling down toward him.  
He stared for a moment, uncertain.  
When he flexed his fingers the phalanges moved too.  
He shot up, body finally responding. His feet kicked a little as he sat up, lifting his other hand close to the other.  
Skeletal.  
He breathed shakily, chest tight. He glanced down at his clothes.  
His vision fuzzed a little, and he reached up, feeling a dent in the side of his glasses as he adjusted them. A crack ran down the centre of one lens, but it was hardly Oscar’s focus in that moment as he looked down at himself.  
His torn, disheveled clothes. The white of a kneecap poked out through his trousers, and debris dusted on him to him. He was suddenly far too aware of the suffocating smell clinging to him, the faint mix of burning rubber and dirt, and something clicked.  
He slowly pressed his fingers to his chest, and watched as they sunk into the fabric of his shirt, a few fingers stopping at the firm bone’s of ribs.

“¿Señor?”  
He snapped his attention up, and stared, wide-eyed.  
A tall skeleton clad in suspenders and a white shirt was seated in a chair beside the bed he sat on. His hair slicked back, dull colours and markings decorated his skull.

“¿How are you feeling, Señor?” The other man (A doctor Oscar guessed from the medical white coat) asked, voice slightly gravelled.  
Oscar shook his head slightly, unsure of what else to do.  
The guard nodded slightly, attention going back to a clipboard in his his hands.  
Skeletal hands.

Oscar winced, hands twitching. “Am I dead?” He asked, watching as he other sighed, looking up with a sympathetic wince. 

“Sí, Señor. Welcome to the Land of the Dead. I’m here to introduce you, help you adjust and come to terms with the situation. There’s a few-”

Oscar found himself toning out the man, thoughts buzzing in his head.  
Oscar sat up a little straighter, wincing at the sound of bones clacking.  
He reached up to touch his face, sliding his fingers across the crevices and bumps of his skull.  
HIS skull.

“-A family member should be here soon, I’m sure they will be able-”

He especially couldn’t deny it as he remembered the brief panic of the world going dark, crushing and suffocating.  
The way the traincarts had jolted so suddenly and how the world was a blur in seconds, heat blaring across the air as something pinned deep into his chest.  
The way it had all been so sudden.  
The way he and Felipe had just been sat together before-

“-May feel some phantom pains from when you died, but they-”

Oscar stiffened, sitting straighter as he glanced about the room again, twisting to look behind himself to see no more than a wall. He clutched his chest, trying to ease his panic at the sight of the dull wall.  
He snapped his attention back to the doctor.

“Where’s Felipe?” He demanded, voice wavering. The man opposite him blinked, taken off guard.

“I… ¿Perdón?”

Oscar pushed himself forward, desperate, even as the other stood, warning him to be careful, but Oscar didn’t care.

“Felipe! Mi Hermano, mi gemelo! He was with me, we were together-!”  
His hands shook, bones clicking as he stared at the man.  
A worried frown formed on the doctor’s skull as he lifted one hand in a calming motion.

“Ah, Señor please, stay calm. I’m sure if you wait a moment we will be able to-”

Oscar felt a gripping pain where his chest was, a twisting in where his gut would have been if he-  
It was wrong, it was all so wrong, they were always together, always!  
Ever since they were niños with glasses too big for their faces, ever since they were babies, ever since they were even born-!  
Nothing could separate them and they felt that so strongly, and he never thought that maybe-  
It felt wrong to think that maybe- Maybe…  
Oh Dios…  
Oscar held himself, falling back against the bed, tight pains ripping through his empty chest, suffocating and far too tight.

“We’re always together, he- I can’t- He can’t-!”  
A sob broke as he squeezed his hands together against his chin, trying to control his breathing as he gasped for air.  
The voice of the other man hardly intelligible over his own thoughts and panic, and he sat there unable to stop the shaking, bones rattling hard as he gasped for air between sobs because Felipe was gone, he wasn’t here and he couldn’t see him and he would never be beside him again and-  
Everything around him was null as his panic refused to subside.

 

 

“-Rivera… Hold on a moment, por favor.”  
Imelda scowled as the man at the desk typed something into the box. What a waste of time, it would be so much more efficient to write and label everything without the use of this ‘new’ technology. She managed just fine without them the whole life and was horrified at how much they were being relied on nowadays.  
The secretary clicked something down onto the keyboard and reached toward the phone sat at the desk, eyes not leaving the screen as he lifted the phone to his skull. It made a small noise for a moment and the secretary smiled at Imelda briefly.  
Imelda stared back disapprovingly, hands at her side. Her thumb caught a bit of the fabric of her dress and brushed it, feeling the texture. Standing here wasn’t getting her any closer to Oscar and Felipe.

“Señorita Rivera is here for her hermanos…” A pause stretched and the secretary’s smile faded a little. Another pause and the secretary nodded, muttering affirmations.

“Okay… Sí, sí…”

Imelda folded her arms, feeling a sense of defence at the somber tone.  
Couldn’t it be easier to gather her brothers, already? These people just had to complicate it, didn’t they?  
Surely it was a given everyone would want to reunite with their family much quicker than need be.  
It’s already been too long since she saw those cheeky brothers of hers…  
She stared at the secretary who placed the phone down with a click, a unsettled expression beginning to play across their skull.  
Imelda tensed. As the secretary slowly stood her patience snapped.

“Where are my hermanos?” She asked, an edge gripping her tone and causing the man before to flinch a little.

“Señorita, It sounds as though your hermano’s are-” He paused, eyes trailing to the floor as he clasped his hands together, frowning deeply. “- A bit panicked at the moment…”

Imelda huffed, rolling her eyes. She stepped forward, back straight and head high.

“Surely the doctor’s are used to handling new arrivals and calming them down, Sí?” This was ridiculous, no one seemed to be able to do their job here…

The secretary watched, slight dumbfounded as Imelda marched her way past him toward the waking room corridor. He scrambled after her, with a small sound of protest, blocking her path.  
She shot him an icy glare as he held up his hands.

“Well, sí, of course! Passing can be a delicate situation, but the problem seems to be- ah-!”  
Imelda continued to walk past him and he faltered for a moment before continuing, following uselessly.  
“-They woke up in separate rooms and-”  
He jumped back when Imelda halt, and spun around to glare at him. Disbelief and hesitation found their way into her voice.

“¿…Qué…?”

The secretary seemed shrink back under Imelda’s gaze, skull beginning to sink into his rib cage.  
“They were put in seperate wake up rooms when they arrived. They were said to be fine at first but-”

“Seperate rooms?!” Imelda growled, ire beginning to pierce her gaze. “They were seperated?!”

The secretary’s shoulders hunched more and more and from a few rooms they had already passed a few doctors and recently awoken patients were opening doors by a gap or viewing safely through the windows. A few workers in the main area of the department glanced down the hallway before hurrying off.

“Señorita Rivera?” A voice from behind her interrupted, and she whirled around at the source.  
The secretary let out a sigh of relief at the doctor, and quickly backed away out of the fire.  
“I assume you know about your brother’s-”  
“Where are they?” She growled, shoulders squaring, fists clenched tight near her hips.  
The doctor sighed, holding up his hands.  
“They are in separate rooms, we were not aware they would react in such a-” Imelda stormed past him, catching a glimpse of a fully opened door behind the doctor with a small nurse close to it.  
The nurse flinched back, stepping far out of reach of Imelda’s wrath.  
Imelda turned into the room and her heart broke at the sight.  
She knew it was Oscar. The few times he had ever been this upset he often curled himself into the corner, or hugged himself tightly. He was curled on the bed, fists gripping tightly into his sleeves as he shook. As soon as a sob made its way to Imelda’s ears she rushed over, kneeling by the bed and slowly placing her hands onto Oscar’s hands, all instincts, maternal and sisterly, set on calming her hermanito.

“Shh, Oscar. Está bien, Lo prometo. Cálmese, cálmese. I’m right here, see?”  
Oscar’s breathing was still heavy, but he lifted his head as her voice began to register. He frowned a little, panicked expression relenting for just a moment.

“…‘Melda?” His voice was so small, so soft…

She frowned, nodding and reaching a hand over to cup his cheek bone, watching carefully for any flinch, any discomfort at the act.

“Sí, It’s me. Estoy aquí, hermanito, calm down.” She pulled her hand away and Oscar sucked in a shaky breath. Imelda pried his hands off his arms and held them close together, covering them with both her own hands.

“Im…Imelda…” Her brother’s voice shook, and his breathing began to pick up again. “Feli- Felipe.. He-”

She hushed him, squeezing his hands with a frown. “He’s in another room. You will see him in a moment I promise.” Oscar’s eyes widened and blinked, but Imelda continued. “You need to breath, Oscar. Calm yourself.”

Oscar nodded, as his gaze fell to her hands over his, his chest rising and falling in paces that began to steady.  
Imelda took the moment to glare over her shoulder, to see the doctor stood near the doorway. He was glancing off to the side when Imelda turned. He shifted and looked back toward her.

“Seno-” He began and Imelda cut him off.

“Show us where Felipe is.” She demanded sharply.

The doctor winced, nodding.  
Imelda gently pulled Oscar up, and her heart ached a little as he stood a head taller than him. She knew he was an adult, but she still remembered to two bruised up boys she would yell at for tracking dirt through the house. Who had teased her relentlessly as they had grown up, and often causing her grief with their ridiculous schemes. Two boys with glasses too big for their faces. The ones who shot up past her, and she had to start pulling their heads down to press kisses to their foreheads. The ones who had hugged her the one night she felt lost for the briefest bit of time, and had remained by her side through the thick of it all. 

It was so wrong to see even just one of them like this…

She led Oscar to the doorway and he trailed close behind her, a hnd still gripping hers as though she’d disappear at any moment.  
The doctor remained quiet as he led them two doors down and Imelda’s rage began to rekindle.  
The audacity these idiotas had! They had been so close the whole time. The pain her brother’s had gone through had been unnecessary and pointless! All of this mess could have been avoided so easily-

She was snapped out of her rage as Oscar raced into the room, crying out happily.  
She hadn’t even noticed the door being opened.  
”Felipe!”  
”Oscar!?”  
Imelda stood, watching into the room as the twins collided, both babbling back and forth to each other, arms locked tightly around the other.  
“Hermano, I thought you weren’t-”  
“I thought I-  
“I thought you-”  
“I didn’t-!”  
“Neither did I!”  
“¡Gracias a Dios-!”  
“¡-Que estás aquí!”

They continued to hug, and Felipe sniffled, Oscar sobbing with joy.  
Imelda could still feel the doctor close, and the urge to rip her shoe off and bash it over the man’s head burst through her chest. She whirled around, her boot off in a practised swipe.

Oscar and Felipe’s attention snapped toward the doorway at a loud yelp and the two saw Imelda’s boot held above her head and the doctor’s skull spinning atop his spine. The moment the doctor had adjusted his skull Imelda was hitting again, screaming her anger at how stupid the man had to be to ever do such a thing to her hermanitos.  
The twins glanced at each other, worried frowns shaped on matching skulls. They observed each other for a moment, taking in their marks. They both reached up, trailing the small swirls on their own cheekbones.  
Oscar smiled a sense of relief finally settling over him, and Felipe smiled back.


End file.
